When I was growing up, we made this recipe every Christmas Eve. Chicken roll ups. Aka, “Petti di Polla Alla Bolognese.” We nicknamed it “Roly Poly Chicken” because, seriously, who can pronounce the real name?!?!

This dish tastes amazing! Like so many of my recipes, it can be made ahead and frozen. So if you’re going to serve it for an occasion like Christmas Eve, you can make this ahead to use as your main dish, and freeze it. That way, it’s all set beforehand and all you have to do is pop it in the oven and make some side dishes. This will cut down on your holiday meal prep, leaving you free to enjoy the time with your family and friends.

Get Ready to Fall in Love with Chicken Roll Ups

These chicken roll ups recipe yields moist chicken breasts that are bursting with flavor, so get ready for your family to ask for this every holiday!

Mix butter, oregano, marjoram, and parsley together. Spread half of this butter mixture on top of the cheese block (use the side with the largest surface). Set aside the other half of the butter mixture which will be used to top the dish before baking.

Score the butter into 8 even markings. Place cheese and butter into the refrigerator until butter becomes firm.

Meanwhile, place the halved chicken breasts between two pieces of Saran Wrap™ and pound with a wooden mallet to flatten.

Remove the cheese and butter from the refrigerator and cut through the cheese where you marked the butter.

Place one of these sticks on each pounded chicken breast. Roll the way you would if making a jellyroll. Fasten with toothpicks.

Coat chicken rolls with flour. Dip in beaten eggs, then in breadcrumbs. At this time, you may wrap the chicken breasts in Saran Wrap™ and place them in a freezer bag along with the butter. This may be kept frozen for several months. The day you’re ready to prepare it, let it thaw out for 6 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

When thawed, place chicken breasts in a prepared flat baking dish and bake uncovered at 350° for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, unwrap the saved butter and melt it in a small saucepan and stir in the wine. When the timer rings, pour wine and butter mixture over chicken and bake for another 15 minutes.

Serve with brown rice and pour the liquid from the baking dish over the rice.

Notes

When scoring the butter, use a knife so that when the butter gets hard, it will already be marked and won’t crack unevenly. I usually create two marks one way, and 4 the other way.

Here are some additional tips for this recipe.

Pound out the chicken breasts to make them more uniform and it makes the meat so tender.

When using gluten-free flour, you may need to use more eggs since gluten-free flour is more absorbent. I simply use 3 large bowls side by side and add any ingredient as it gets low. Of course, anything that you don’t use from the dipping station must be discarded since it came in contact with raw chicken. If you don’t have bigger bowls, you can simply use gallon-sized Ziploc bags. If you have a chicken breast that is very big, then pound it out and cut it in half vertically and use it as a kid-sized portion. When you score the herbed cheese, be mindful of the size of your chicken breasts and try to score the cheese congruent with those sizes since any cheese that isn’t sealed inside the chicken will ooze out the sides when baking. The butter herb sauce can also be made ahead and stored in the freezer. I usually put the frozen butter herb sauce in a pot with the wine on the back burner of the stove, and there’s usually enough heat to melt it if I am using the oven during the day. Once it’s melted, you can bring it to a low boil to cook the alcohol out of the wine. Be sure to do this with the lid on so that the sauce doesn’t reduce down. For the butter, use either raw/organic or Kerrygold butter. Mix in your herbs, fresh or dried, and serve this mixture on rolls, as well. Put in the herbed butter hotlink here.Lastly, the Daiya Monterey block melts perfectly in this recipe. The leftovers are also fabulous…Well, IF there are any leftovers.

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